A treat from jazz artistes

Dean Williams delivers an outstanding performance.
Dean Williams delivers an outstanding performance.

Gary Cardinez

PURE Imagination was a night of love filled with great music by some of TT’s best jazz musicians along with the experience of master of kaiso jazz Clive Zanda Alexander.

There was great expectation and anticipation at Kaiso Blues Cafe last Thursday as the audience anxiously awaited the star of the night… Bri Celestin.

First off, Celestin chose Rodney Alexander (bass), Shaquille Noel (drums), Ron Clarke (keys) along with Tony Paul (sax/flute), with Dean Williams (guitar) and Clive Zanda as special guests.

Paul introduced Celestin to a thunderous round of applause and she immediately went into Pure Imagination with Paul standing out with his flute. It did not take very long for the audience to realise that they were in for a treat.

Alexander’s strum and Paul changing to his saxophone on Hideaway was off the charts as Celestin caressed the lyrics of the popular Tessanne Chin song.

The sultry singer engaged the audience with conversation before she did a poem Body over Mind mixed with Wild is the Wind. Rodney Alexander picked up his upright bass and started Heart is as Black as Night with Paul still on sax.

Another introduction saw the dapper Dean Williams on stage with the band to play El Diablo. Once again the music easily placed the audience into another realm, seemingly out of this world. They were kept there as Williams continued with Say I Love you. Celestin brought the audience back to earth with a beautiful rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine which had them singing.

Clive Zanda with the young musicians in a jam session.

The 15-minute intermission came at the right time as the people needed to breathe a little.

Celestin chose Nat King Cole’s 1948 hit Nature Boy to start the second half and once again it was a mesmerising rendition with each musician performing a solo.

You Don’t Know What Love Is followed before Celestin performed one of her original composition You Loved Me. She then introduced Zanda who played keyboards as she sang Aged and Mellow. Zanda then showed his versatility with Kaiso Jazz as the the singer went out of her comfort zone to do Marge Blackman’s Full of Vibes.

Bri Celestin is flanked by Dean Williams and Tony Paul.

After Zanda’s performance he received a big hug from the singer before he left the stage.

Celestin continued with I’ll take Care of You and finished off the session with another original called I’ll Fly.

Just when you felt the show was over Zanda and the rest of musicians gave Sparrow’s Mr Walker a true Kaiso Blues jam session to which the audience went wild.

Patrons who stayed on after the jam session all received hot cross buns from the management for the Good Friday occasion.

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"A treat from jazz artistes"

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